Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Spanish Fort

To-Go was a NO-NO. First time doing OG To-Go and was not happy with my experience. Walked up to the counter and it was 15min before anyone even acknowledged I was even standing there and waiting. During this 15min, there was a stack of 6 salads on the counter and 2 other to-go orders. When the cashier came up, she had the attitude that I was bothering her to even be there. Gave her my pick up time and she told me that being there (5min early) that it would not be ready. The other 2 orders on the counter were also both marked for the same pick up time, and were both already complete. She walked away from the counter, then 5min later, came back , and finally set the salads in the fridge behind the counter. (It now being 15 min they had been sitting out), with not only me at the counter, but a guy, who managed to be coughing all over the place. At which point I noted the 2 metal containers of silverware sitting on the counter in front of the dude, who did not cover his mouth when he was coughing. When my order was finally bought out, it was dropped into a bag and handed over to me. I had to stop in the door way and set my bag on a couch , to even see if all of my order was there. At which point a different girl walked up and hand to hand me the rest of my order. While standing there for the whole 30 min. I had only 1 person inquire if anyone had talked to me, and he looked like a busboy. The "manager" passed by me several times, but not once asked if anything was okay. Oh, and fyi, their health rating has gone from a 97 to a 90. Once we got the food home, both of our dishes were cold. Not "they had been in the car for 5min cold" they were fresh out of the freezer cold. The mashed potatoes still had ice in the middle of them and my husbands pasta was still hard and also cold. Our order, that we asked items to be left out, was also looked over, and mushrooms and olives were included in dishes we asked not to be....

I absolutely LOVE Olive Garden and have been to many locations. I was never once disappointed until tonight. The last time I was at the Spanish Fort location was a couple of years ago and we had excellent service and food. Something has definitely changed because I won’t be back after our experience tonight and don’t recommend anyone else wasting their time either!

My fiancé and I live where there are many amazing dining options, but decided to drive 50 minutes specifically for Olive Garden. We both work in the service industry, and have for 10 years, so we expected things to be a little different than normal because of all the pandemic regulations. We arrived and were met outside at the door by a friendly girl who told us it would only be a few minutes wait. It was only a few minutes like she said before we were taken to our table which was nice! However, we immediately noticed the bar was completely closed to seating and out of alllllllll of the tables in that restaurant, only about 4 that we saw had people at them. So we were confused about why we had to wait at all if the restaurant was basically empty?!?

5 minutes passed by after being seated and still no one had even greeted our table or said they’d be with us soon or anything! Another 5 minutes and still nothing. Another 5 minutes went by and still no one had even spoken to us!!!! That is unacceptable. ESPECIALLY IN AN EMPTY RESTAURANT. Finally, we just decided to walk out. We had talked about the salad, breadsticks, wine, tiramisu, etc all day and were so excited to eat at your establishment, sadly we were highly disappointed and baffled at the lack of service and professionalism that was displayed. We took our service to a nearby restaurant and were exceptionally pleased!! I’m so sad to see one of my favorite restaurants go so...

I ate there with two picky grandkids and we all enjoyed our meal a great deal. I rarely give 5 stars, and then only for the very best and usually very expensive restaurants. I'd eaten at a couple of Olive Gardens and they were both terrible, one in Jackson, Mississippi and the other in Atlanta. That was more than 5 years ago and I swore I'd never go back. Friends in New Orleans said how much they liked the Olive Garden in suburban New Orleans (Metairie?) and when I finally agreed to go with them I was amazed at how good it was; so when the grandkids said all their friends loved it, but they'd never been because my daughter and son-in-law wouldn't take them (they had bad experiences similar to mine) I agreed to take them and my grandson and I both enjoyed our meals a great deal( my granddaughter a bit less so. She doesn't like sauces of any kind or soup. She ordered her pasts plain and didn't want dessert. My grandson and I both ordered soup, he had the Tuscan and I had the soup with beans, both delicious, as were our pastas, his with a red sauce and mine with asiago alfredo and Italian sausage. Neither of us had room for dessert and took home enough for lunch the next day. Service was very good and except for having to request lemon for my tea twice after ordering it initially, it was prompt, friendly, and professional. Overall, I rate it as good if not better than any of the other restaurants in the area. If you've been avoiding the Olive Garden for long-ago bad experiences, I recommend you give it another try. It's a beautiful restaurant, definitely family-friendly, and more reasonable than restaurants that aren't half as good.

This website wouldn't allow me to correct my typos....